We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Striking - Rolling - Scraping - Bending

by Ernie Althoff

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

1.
Bottles 06:04
2.
Redball 08:38
3.
Shells 08:37
4.
Tin trio 08:35
5.
6.
7.
Sail 08:33
8.
Celluloid 08:40
9.
Bonsai 11:29

about

Music made with 29 acoustic kinetic machines, one slow-speed cassette player, and three player-manipulated devices. Tracks 1-8 were all recorded in one take each, with the featured machines set up and playing in front of the microphones.

Bottles: Seven upright magnum-sized sake bottles are rotated at 78 rpm, their mouths scraped by suspended tinplate rectangles of different sizes.

Redball: A rotating toy drum is sounded by a tethered wooden ball, with the ball also occasionally striking a suspended aluminium slab. A rotating inverted cymbal with a sliding Y-shaped bamboo beater adds a high-end texture, while a slow-speed cassette player with a tubular resonator over the speaker provides lows.

Shells: A rotating vertical beater strikes a chime-set of scallop-shells. An angled rotating dish of sliding clamshells is positioned left. A second angled rotating dish of sliding metal objects is positioned right. Two beaters suspended from a rotating T-arm structure strike upright bamboo sections positioned in a circle.

Tin trio: A rotating beater strikes eight vertical tinplate tines attached to a wooden base as their resonator. A second machine but with four longer tines that are also equipped with wire sizzles adds a ragged bassline. Two revolving suspended washers travel across a dimpled tinplate base.

Venus de Milo: Four machines (old record players) using rolling marbles to produce varied sounds. One of them has the marbles in contact with the record player's amplified tone arm. Another two force single large marbles to strike the steel record platters. Manually shaken aluminium windchimes also feature.

Tin tine tones: The eight-pitch tines machine from Track 4, with manual damping of the tines with fingers, hands and wrists.

Sail: Wire beaters suspended from a rotating T-arm structure skip over a circular array of large brass ashtrays. A very thin rectangular aluminium sheet is flexed by the wind from a small desk fan, with a contact microphone plugged into a homemade amp and speaker adding gain to these sounds. A manually swung long chime-set of very thin bamboo completes the ensemble.

Celluloid: Five small machines vibrate and move various objects to produce a thick texture. The sixth machine, a small record player, plays a circular cardboard disk made rough and smooth with the addition of adhesive tape strips. Volume levels, tone-arm and cardboard tube resonator over the speaker are also manipulated. A round wooden box with a swinging lid is also heard at one point.

Bonsai: Twelve large bonsai pots arranged in a circle are struck by bamboo beaters suspended from a rotating T-arm structure. This recording has been mixed with the bottles of Track 1, as a try-out for a sound installation that was exhibited in May 2003.

credits

released November 29, 2021

Recorded from 30 November 2001 to 14 January 2002 on a Tascam DAT recorder in a home studio.
Machine design and construction, and all other aspects of the original project: Ernie Althoff.

Digital mixing for Track 9: Rainer Linz.

These nine tracks were originally released in February 2002 as a limited CD-R edition of 50. Each item had a different cover collage, but all were in the same style.

Shame File Music 2021
ShameFileMusic.com

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Shame File Music Melbourne, Australia

Shame File Music specialises in documenting Australian experimental music, both contemporary and historical.

contact / help

Contact Shame File Music

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Striking - Rolling - Scraping - Bending, you may also like: